Ryanair refund thread

rjhfandclf

bagand96 said:

When you consider the shear number of passengers they carry and flights they've had to cancel it's not unreasonable that there will be delays processing millions of refunds.

I fully agree that patience in these peculier circimstances is not just a virture, but a necessity. However, no-one has yet explained to me how RA are able to take my booking and CC payment in a matter of seconds, yet refunding that same transaction and amount takes weeks, if not months. It is a clear cut charge and refund situation with nothing to question, and it must all be automated. It is with any other online transaction that needs to be refunded and the maximum that one needs to wait is a few days for it to appear on the CC account. I personally don't think that any of the quoted airlines is dealing with this in a way that is not influenced by cash-flow - despite Mr O'Leary's claimed 4 billion euros of liquid reserves. Interesting also, that for those who paid in GBP the exchage rate has moved dramatically since I (at least) paid!

I can wait; there is nothing else to do.

soolin

Cruixer said:

My flight for 3rd April was cancelled, and I applied for a refund through ryanair website which went through ok. That was on the 26th March. I got a confirmation page, but no email confirmation. I saved a PDF of the page for proof, but then spend 3 days on the chat waiting for a customer service agent and no one replied. No refund yet in my bank account.

Anyone know who this should be escalated through? Credit card company or some industry body?

I wouldn’t escalate it anywhere yet, I suspect we may be waiting for months before we see the refunds. Mine was cancelled a couple of weeks before yours and I’m still waiting .

Cruixer

soolin said:

Cruixer said:

My flight for 3rd April was cancelled, and I applied for a refund through ryanair website which went through ok. That was on the 26th March. I got a confirmation page, but no email confirmation. I saved a PDF of the page for proof, but then spend 3 days on the chat waiting for a customer service agent and no one replied. No refund yet in my bank account.

Anyone know who this should be escalated through? Credit card company or some industry body?

I wouldn’t escalate it anywhere yet, I suspect we may be waiting for months before we see the refunds. Mine was cancelled a couple of weeks before yours and I’m still waiting .

Really! I would have thought that when they cancel the flight they would be obliged to process the refund promptly. I accept these are not normal times, but Ryanair seem to be deliberately frustrating this process.

In comparison Airbnb processed the refund within a few days and they were not really obliged to as we cancelled. 

bagand96

Cruixer said:

Really! I would have thought that when they cancel the flight they would be obliged to process the refund promptly. I accept these are not normal times, but Ryanair seem to be deliberately frustrating this process.

In comparison Airbnb processed the refund within a few days and they were not really obliged to as we cancelled. 

The rules state within 14 days but that's out of the window.

If you've submitted the form and got the proof of submission PDF then Ryanair got your form. Ryanair have not been sending email confirmations once the form is submitted.  What they have sent is a couple of follow up emails.  I had one last week and one today.  It was not specific, just generic but said they are working hard to process refunds, they have my request and it's in the queue, please don't submit again. Maybe check your spam if you haven't received.

The form is clearly not automated and needs some manual processing.  Consider that Ryanair carried 10 million passengers in February, if theres' an average of 4 per booking (a guess), thats 2.5 million bookings.  Now consider they've cancelled half of March and all of April's flights... that's one hell of a lot of refunds to get through.  Like everywhere else, airline head offices and customer service centres are probably working at greatly reduced capacity due to the virus.  It's all going to take time.  might not be what you want to hear.  But it is the truth.

rjhfandclf

Co-incidentally, I have also just (today 09/04) received my 'second' email, half an hour ago. As a timescale guide for others, the first email was two weeks earlier on 27/03, following submission of a claim 10 days earlier dated 17/03. The new email says that they are 'prioritising our most vulnerable customers', and certainly adds that the problem is compounded by government health restrictions leading to less staff. Technically, according to the government, both of us here fall into the 'vulnerable' category, but why we should be prioritised for any refund process (should we actually happen to be so prioritised) is curious to say the least! If it is all such a manual exercise (which I still fail to understand), could they not draft in some of their unoccipied staff from elsewhere, perhaps?

jamsplat

I have had my Ryanair flight cancelled, applied for the refund, with confirmation by email. I've had two 'we're working on it but it will take longer' emails delaying the refund (applied for on 20/03/20) and now I see in the news that Ryanair will no longer be offering refunds for cancelled flights, and will only be offering vouchers. Does anyone know if this will be backdated to include refund requests already in the system- do I need to add these flights onto my travel insurance claim (already submitted)?

prowla

I think they may well offer vouchers, but that doesn't trump the law.

soolin

jamsplat said:

I have had my Ryanair flight cancelled, applied for the refund, with confirmation by email. I've had two 'we're working on it but it will take longer' emails delaying the refund (applied for on 20/03/20) and now I see in the news that Ryanair will no longer be offering refunds for cancelled flights, and will only be offering vouchers. Does anyone know if this will be backdated to include refund requests already in the system- do I need to add these flights onto my travel insurance claim (already submitted)?

I have had the 'delay' messages as well but it does say
"Please rest assured your refund request is currently in the queue and will be processed. If you have selected new travel dates and would prefer to move your booking, please contact us " 
so I am assuming my refund will be made on all my cancelled flights as already confirmed.  

Nebulous2

Here's an article on Ryanair refunds. Apparently they aren't processing any while staff are working from home. 

https://simpleflying.com/ryanair-stops-giving-refunds/

rjhfandclf

Simpleflying.com is not a user-friendly site. Preferable, although The Guardian is not my newspaper of choice, this article is a reasonably fair assessment and comment on many of the airlines' stated positions - however unlawful ...

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/apr/10/airlines-law-refunds-voucher-schemes-coronavirus